Enormous as are the trees of the Amazonian forests, and able to
withstand the fiercest storms, they have frequently to succumb to the
attacks of minute insects. Many a monarch of the woods has been brought
low by the efforts of the persevering termites; but they have other
enemies. The palm-trees are assailed by a group of beetles (the
Histeridae) which take possession of the moist interior of their stems.
One of these is an enormous fellow--the hister maximus. Another group
have their bodies as thin as wafers, to enable them to live in the
narrow crevices of the bark. One set of species, however (the
trypanaeus), are totally different, being cylindrical in shape. They
drill holes in the solid wood, and look like tiny animated gimlets when
seen at work; their pointed heads being fixed in the wood, while their
smooth glossy bodies work rapidly round so as to create little streams
of sawdust from the holes.
The caribi, which in Europe perform the important duty of scavengers,
and live on the ground, are in South America nearly always found on
trees. Some are of enormous size.
The Hercules beetle, which lives on the mamma Americana, attains a
length of five and sometimes six inches. It is known by the singular
horn-shaped proboscis rising from the head and thorax, which gives it so
formidable an appearance. Its duty is probably to eat up the rotten
wood.
Other members of the family,--known as the elephant, Neptune, and
typhon,--excavate burrows in the earth, living on the decomposed trunks
of trees during the day, and flying about at night with a loud humming
noise--apparently to enjoy the air, of which they are deprived in the
daytime.
The megasominae is of an enormous size, as is also the beautiful Inca
beetle.
Among the most beautiful beetles in the Brazils is the diamond beetle
(Entrinus nobilis), of a lustrous azure green, and with golden wings.
With it, and other species, the ladies form necklaces, and ornament
their dresses.
In Venezuela, the cactus plants, which grow so abundantly, serve to
nourish the valuable though odd-looking little coccus cacti. The male
and female differ greatly. The female resembles a Lilliputian tortoise,
and is of a dark brown colour, with two light spots on the back covered
with white powder. The male, possessed of a pair of wings, is much
smaller, and roves about at will from plant to plant. The female, a
short time after she has become full-grown, secures herself to a leaf,
where she remains immovable. She now grows to such a size, that she
more resembles a seed belonging to a plant than an insect, all her limbs
being completely concealed by her wide-expanded body. In process of
time, before the young insects are born, the cochineal-gatherers detach
the insect by means of a knife dipped in boiling water, which kills
them. They are then dried in the sun, and appear like small dry berries
of a deep mulberry colour.